Brand new musical features a book by Dominique Morisseau, who also wrote the “Temptations” musical.
Quentin Earl Darrington and Angela Birchett star in “Hippest Trip — the Soul Train Musical” at American Conservatory Theater.For decades, “Soul Train” was a trend-setting phenomenon in American households, a nonstop dance party that brought African American music, fashion and dance trends into the spotlight in a way then seldom seen on television.
“It changed the entire cultural landscape of television,” says playwright Dominique Morisseau, who wrote the book of the musical. “It defined a presence of Black commercials, Black products, Black consumerism for independent and established Black businesses who were putting their commercials on the ‘Soul Train’ slot. That kind of marketing representation, having products built catering to the kind of hair that I had — that wouldn’t have happened without that show.
“My mom tells the story of how she watched the first episode,” says “Hippest Trip” choreographer Camille A. Brown. “It came on when she was in college working at Macy’s. At the time, Macy’s had an electronic department, and she said all the Black kids went to that floor and turned on the TVs and were watching ‘Soul Train.’ And they just thought it was the most amazing thing, because they saw reflections of themselves.
“We’re not just talking about the ’70s version of ‘Soul Train,’” Brown says. “We’re talking about all of ‘Soul Train.’ So you see time travel. You’re going to see a variety of one group of social dances that tell a certain time period, and then you’ll see another group of social dances that tell another time period.”
“What do you associate with a TV show that’s been on the air for four decades?” Morisseau says. “That’s going to cover a lot of kinds of music. There will be songs that feel like, oh yeah, if I was picturing a ‘Soul Train’ musical, that song makes sense. And there’ll be other songs that you have no idea are going to be in the musical. And they won’t be used in the ways that are necessarily expected.
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